ORSERO FAMILY

This mark is surely unknown overseas for now, but being an Italian company can only please us if it will become a big commercial reality worldwide. I refer to the Italian “GF Group” which will distribute its products under the trademark “F.lli Orsero“.
This is a credit to an Italian company that for more than thirty years has worked in the shadow of two great foreign giants, “Del Monte” and “Chiquita“.
It all started last year when the “Del Monte Corporation” broke the contract that, since 1976, bound them to the GF-Group for the exclusive distribution in Italy, Spain, France, Portugal and Mediterranean area, of their foodstuffs, and fruits in particular. Areas where the “Jordanian-Palestinian giant” not acted in a direct manner, relying on the export and distribution to the Italian GF-group, before opening their own offices in these areas, by new business strategies in Europe, and splitting the contract. As the CEO of GF-Group, Raffaella Orsero says: “Our group has grown together with them and the contract termination gave us the opportunity to make this decision, the time was ripe for it, launching our brand. Our goal now is to control 20% of the market in southern Europe, driving down “Del Monte” from 25 to 10% and gnawing something to “Chiquita” (over 3 billion U.S. dollars), leader with 35% “.
Their new logo brand represents a van, the old one used by their grandfather, founder of the family company, that transported fruits around the Ligurian Riviera (Liguria). Company which then grew with 3500 employees, a turnover of 964 million and with 200 products distributed. The GFgroup has also invested to grow and when Del Monte was in trouble, it purchased two pineapple and banana plantations in Costa Rica, and has also invested in refrigerated ships, which in a few days export fruit on Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Greek markets. They can also boast strong relationships with major retail chains with which also the Chiquita products are distributed. Both sides have come to the counter-attack with Del Monte that sued them and Chiquita which paved Italy with its new ads, signed by the Italian graph Armando Testa.
Over the last ten years the sale of bananas and pineapples has tripled, with bananas being the second most consumed fruit in the world, producing over 97 million tons (from India, Philippines and China). The turnover of imports in Europe is estimated at nearly 3.4 billion and the widespread presence of GF-Group is ready to flood the market with 19 million boxes of fruit. The Orsero family has clear ideas: “Our products are “ high end ” quality but less expensive than Chiquita”. In Italy, the Orsero’s business philosophy is to always brings on the tables only the freshest products because the fruits “seasonality” is an important factor, as well as the “made in Italy”. It is unthinkable, for example, to have homegrown apples on the table during summer, produced many months before in Italy, while in Chile, just on summertime, apples are fresh.
Anyway, the “Bananas war” has begun.